Chain of Command
by Cajun Quinn
Summary: Set a few weeks after my other new story "Blance of Power", Remy makes an important decision that effects himself and his family.


Chain of Command

(NOTE: Second in the new "series" of stories I'm working on set five years after the Guild Unification. Given things I've found out regarding the comics, I thought it would be a good idea to tie that in and go from there. So that's what I'm doing. I don't own any of them, but I do own the idea. Enjoy.)

* * *

"Well, dis is it."

Remy LeBeau, also known as Gambit, stood on the front porch of the Garden District safehouse he had once called home, but had passed over to his family after the assassins half of the Guild lost their mansion. He had phoned them two hours before requesting that they all meet him there. He had something very important to talk to them about.

With a fleet of butterflies in his stomach, he opened the door and went inside.

Tante Mattie was waiting for him on the other side of the door. Despite her age of 124, she was just as spunky and alert as she'd ever been and was still firmly planted in the home as mother figure and healer to the eleven thieves and assassins she called her children. "Dey're waitin' on you, child."

"I know, Tante. I'm jus' nervous."

"Remy, listen to your Tante. You've done a lot of t'inkin' 'bout dis in recent months an' lord knows you've talked to me enough 'bout it. Dey'll understand, an' if dey don' understand, dey'll find a way to deal wit' it. You jus' gotta be honest wit' dem."

Remy nodded and headed up to the library on the second floor. Seated around the large mahogany table in the center of the room were the people he called family: the Unified Guild of Thieves and Assassins. Remy had to chuckle to himself as he looked at them from the doorway. Even after five years of unification, some things hadn't changed. The thieves were on one side of the table, and the assassins were on the other. The only one comfortable enough to sit in the middle, at the far end, was Zoë, who was the only person present not originally from New Orleans. The only spot empty was the end closest to the door, where Remy's chair was.

"Go on, child." Tante Mattie urged from behind him.

Remy nodded again and opened the door. As he did so, eleven pairs of eyes turned to him and silence filled the room. He entered and took his place at the head of the table, but didn't sit down.

"I called you all here for dis meetin' today for a reason." He began. "I'm gon' keep it as to de point as I can. Three years ago, I handed dis house over to all of you. T'ank you for not burnin' it down or blowin' it up."

"Both of which are possibilities." Emil Lapin, Remy's cousin and best friend in New Orleans, piped up.

"I know." Remy smiled. "Anyway, as I'm sure you're all aware, it's very difficult for me to go back an' forth b'tween here an' New York all de time. My job wit' de X-Men keep me so busy I don't get a chance to come back here nearly often enough to be a suitable leader for this Guild."

"What are you sayin', Remy?" Remy's sister-in-law, Mercy LeBeau, asked quietly.

"Jus' hear me out, Merce. I'm gettin' to it." Remy replied. "Now when my father left five years ago, he put me in charge with the idea dat I was to lead a unified Guild towards de resurrection of de Old Kingdom. I did as he asked reluctantly…an' you all accepted it, some more reluctantly dan others. I appreciate de faith you put in me to allow me to do my job as best I could. However, never did my father say I was to remain Guild leader until the resurrection occurred. Nowhere in de prophecies does it say dat. An' dat's why I called dis meetin'."

"Remy…" Bella Donna Boudreaux, Remy's ex-wife and Viceroy of the Guild, started. Remy cut her off.

"Bel I've been t'inkin' 'bout dis for months. Prob'ly close to a year now. Jus' ask Tante Mattie if you don' b'lieve me. I'm runnin' myself ragged here. I'm to de point where I'm unable to give one hundred percent to de X-Men or to you guys, an' dat's not fair. Now my dilemma for de pas' year has been, which do I choose?"

Remy finally sat down and looked at the Guild members in front of him. Each of them was looking at him curiously. Somehow by this point they had all figured out what he was going to say to them, but they wanted to wait and let him do it himself, instead of jumping to conclusions.

"Did you decide?" Mercy asked amid the heavy silence.

"Oui. I was recently appointed to a different X-team, as you know. I weighed how confident I was in leavin' dem to deir own devices, against leavin' you to yours. It wasn' an easy decision, but somethin' Mercy said to me five years ago stuck wit' me. She said, and I quote, 'We been doin' dis a long time wit'out you as our boss-man, Remy.' And dat's absolutely true. De eleven of you are more dan capable of takin' care of t'ings here wit'out me. Now I'm not de leader of dat X-Men team, but de kid who is…is jus' dat. A kid. He's inexperienced an' it shows. It wouldn' be fair to him, or to de team, to skip out on dem after such a short period of time."

The Guild was silent for a long time after Remy finished speaking. He waited as the information sunk into their minds. He wasn't surprised when Emil was the one who spoke up next.

"You'll come back won' you, Rem?"

Remy smiled. "Always. I have a home here, an' you guys are my fam'ly. I ain' 'bout to turn my back on you or dis city. If you ever need help, all you have to do is ask me. I jus' won' be your boss-man anymore."

Emil nodded.

"If you aren', den who is?"

That question came from Questa, who was probably one of the craziest, most psychotic people in possibly the whole country. Remy smiled.

"Well, I could say dat it's up to you guys, but at least right now it really isn't. If someone wants to argue it at a future dat you're more'n welcome to it. But as far as I'm concerned, de leadership passes directly to Bella Donna."

Bel's eyes widened a little at that news. She hadn't doubted it, but had been thinking he would have tried to skip her and make his cousin Theoren Marceaux the leader, seeing as Theoren was the highest-ranking thief.

Remy continued, as if reading Bella Donna's mind. "It'll be up to Bel what she does with the Viceroy position once I'm gone, but I'd like to t'ink she'd do de right t'ing. If nobody has any questions, I t'ink my portion of dis meetin' is over."

He stood up and moved behind the chair, then looked at Bella Donna with a smile. "Chere? I t'ink dis seat's yours now."

Bella Donna smiled, stood and moved over to take her place at the head of the table as Matriarch of the Unified Guild. "T'ank you, Remy…"

Remy nodded. "I'll be in touch." With that, he left the room, walked down the hall, down the stairs and, after bidding a warm goodbye to Tante Mattie, left the safehouse.

Up in the library, Bella Donna looked at the Guild…her Guild now. "I could be selfish and do what the assassin in me is tellin' me to do…but we all know dat selfishness is not de way to a good unification. Remy worked very hard to get our two Guilds together an' keep us together an' I don' wan' t'row dat 'way on a whim. It would put us right back where we were five years ago an' everyone's hard work an' sacrifices would have been for nothin'."

The thieves and assassins looked at her, waiting to hear what she was going to say. Two faces around the table looked nervous and uncertain, emotions that didn't become either man. One was Theoren, the other was Gris-Gris, who was the highest-ranking assassin in the Guild. However, Bella Donna had a twist to throw at them that would shock them all.

"Wit' dat bein' said, my first official job as Matriarch of de Unified Guild is to appoint a new second-in-command…a new Viceroy. I don' t'ink it would be fair to appoint an assassin to de position, as de t'ieves need proper representation as well. Dere is only one t'ief in dis room who I feel would be suitable to be Viceroy an' who I want to lead de Guild beside me. Dis person has shown time an' again over de pas' five years dat dey have good leadership qualities an' care 'bout de well-bein' of de Guild as a whole. Dat person is Mercy LeBeau."

Ten sets of jaws dropped as Bel motioned for Mercy to take the seat at the table formerly occupied by her, to her right.

When Mercy was seated again, Theoren spoke up. "Good call, Bel."

"Indeed." Gris-Gris agreed. Both he and Theoren were shocked and a little disappointed, but they also understood Bella Donna's reasoning and couldn't disagree with it. They knew she and Mercy would make an excellent team to lead the Guild.

They knew it, and more importantly, the whole Guild knew it. Remy was no longer in power, and a new day had arrived to carry the Guild forward into the future.


End file.
